“It’s kind of been his reputation”: When Graham Rahal called out Romain Grosjean’s dirty driving in IndyCar

IndyCar driver Graham Rahal and Romain Grosjean bumped into each other at the Barber Motorsport Park during the Grand Prix of Alabama in 2022. The crash led to a furious outburst from the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s driver during the post-race interviews as Graham slammed the Frenchman for his driving standards.

In the 2022 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Rahal finished P8, directly behind Romain Grosjean in P7. After looking at the incident and making comments about the contact, Rahal was asked whether the race control should take action regarding Grosjean's driving standards. He replied:

“I'll let you guys decide. You know, I think James Townsend, you've been around a long time. Diff (Leigh Diffey), everybody, you guys, guys know and when it's a, you know, as a I won't name but as another driver in the series told me you can't teach an old dog new tricks and you know, it's kind of been his reputation over his whole career in Europe and it's just we're learning his reputation quickly here.

“So to me, you know, if race control doesn't want to do anything, then they're not going to do anything. But when we go and punt him, they better not do anything to me which in the past I've been penalized for a lot less than that,” he added.

Graham Rahal and Romain Grosjean made contact with four laps to go at the 2022 Grand Prix of Alabama. The Frenchman, (who drove for Andretti Autosport back then) dive-bombed the RLL driver going into the hairpin and made contact.

However, that wasn't all as when the duo got out of the corner and onto the straight, Grosjean again made contact with Rahal’s car. Earlier in the race, the Frenchman had already made two questionable moves. One was on his then-teammate Colton Herta on Lap 15 where he dive-bombed the American causing the No. 26 Honda to run wide.

The other time against Josef Newgarden on Lap 48, when Grosjean made a late move on the outside and ran over the gravel as he took avoiding action to prevent another contact.

Graham Rahal reviewed Romain Grosjean's late move on him at the 2022 Grand Prix of Alabama

Graham Rahal was questioned about the contact with the Frenchman, as he asked whether the reporter wanted an honest Graham or if he had to behave himself. As the reporter asked Rahal to be honest, he unleashed on Grosjean.

Roar Before The 24h - Source: Getty

The reporters replayed the move made by the then-Andretti driver with four laps to go as Graham Rahal said, via post-race interview:

“Well, I just think it's clear. Just watch the in-car camera. Look at the angle of his head. So I knew Roman was going to dive bomb me because I'd already been warned that's what he's doing. But look, we're already straight there. Why are you turning into me?”

“I'm just frustrated because this isn't the first time in St. Pete he hit everybody he could hit. We came here. He hit Rossi, he hit Herta, hit me. It just at some point we got to clean up our act.”

However, this wasn't the only time that Grosjean would be involved in contact with his teammate and other driver as Michael Andretti and Co. had an incident-filled race later in the 2022 season at Mid Ohio.